Airdropping cargo is a common approach for providing materials or supplies (collectively called “cargo”) to remote or hostile areas for supporting military troops. In military applications, airdropping cargo allows resupplying forward areas where ground transport of cargo is not feasible. Airdropping cargo can also be used in non-military applications, such as delivery of emergency or relief supplies. Similarly, cargo aircraft can airdrop cargo in areas where ground transport is not readily possible, or timeliness does not allow for the delay associated with ground transportation of the cargo. While helicopters can also deliver supplies in remote areas, they are often limited as to their payload and their delivery range. Further, they can be more susceptible to ground-to-air attacks.
The accuracy of airdropping cargo has been facilitated by the use of pallet steering mechanisms and global positioning system (“GPS”) technology. A pallet steering mechanism may be used to actively steer the cargo as it descends and, GPS technology could be used to guide the delivery of cargo through active steerage of the cargo as it descends.
Cargo is typically bundled and secured to a support base, such as a pallet, skid or similarly blunt flat-bottomed surface, and the blunt or flat bottomed surface is usually the leading side during descent. Aerodynamically, an object that is descending rapidly and has a blunt or flat leading edge has excessive drag. Such an object also tends to have limited cross range capability. It is with respect to these and other considerations that the disclosure herein is presented.